Geertsma's subsidence solution extended to layered stratigraphy

This paper presents closed-form analytical solutions for the stress and deformation outside and inside a porous layer embedded within elastic strata of dissimilar mechanical properties and subjected to pore pressure disturbances due to fluid extraction or injection. Previous solutions for axisymmetric pore pressure reduction in a homogenous half-space (Geertsma, 1973a; Segall, 1992) are recovered as special cases of current study. In particular, practical implications of the proposed solution, such as surface deformation, reservoir compaction, and depletion/injection-induced stress redistribution are reevaluated under the relaxed assumptions made in this study. It is shown that obtained results can be generalized to the case of multilayered strata.